Safe Practice of Lean

Howdy folks, and welcome to another campfire entry into my blog post.  Grab a cup of coffee and hitch up your horse as I am going to write about something this morning that I don't see covered enough, the safe practice of Lean.

I'm sure your cowpokes are wondering what I mean when I state "safe practice of Lean".  You all may have thought..."OK, Cowboy has left the range, wandered into a patch of loco weed and started eating."  That may be a first thought yet let's walk this trail for a piece.

When we enter a new organization, how do we show up?  Do we show up with questions and smiles or do we make an assessment of a broken down building with substandard equipment knowing all the solutions to the problems that workforce faces?  How many of us have made that mistake?  I have and let me tell you what, once you insult folks with a know it all attitude it is harder to earn back than picking out prickly pear cactus spines from your backside.

Presence of an open mind, leading with questions and smiles, being open to the needs of the organization and its individuals is necessary.  Just because we may have an answer doesn't mean it is the best answer.  Just put yourself in the place of a team member.  You see a new trail boss who is married to "The Lean Lady" and you may think, "Oh he is a know it all here to change the way I work yet doesn't know anything about me."  Does that scenario or a semblance thereof sound familiar?  If not, I tip my hat to you.  Along this trail I've made errors, yet I've learned from them as opposed to continually making them.  Rolling out tool after tool, demonstrating A3's, Fishbone, 5Why's, accident maps.... That is all nice and good yet how many of us actually teach the individuals how to use them.  Giving all these tools to folks is just like giving whiskey and car keys to a group of cantankerous old cowhands on the range just raring to take that old time sedan into town to swoon all the fair maidens.

What I am getting at is this.  We are overburdening our students when we as teachers haphazardly toss tools and terms around without following thru and making sure our students understand and can demonstrate proficiency in their use.  I've seen this time and time again.  Company X wants to "do Lean", they hire a consultant, get the ball rolling and boom!!!!! Ownership thought Lean was a magic bullet and he shifts the scope of the consultants work without knowing the outcome for he doesn't think about his end customer nor the value stream.  Ownership throws a tantrum because "Lean isn't working" yet ownership doesn't take the time to slow down so the organization can speed up.  Ownership is at fault so they throw a tantrum, disguise their failed attempt at a Lean journey and continue their trail of misery and confusion.

We must be responsible when we practice and teach.  Slowing down to solicit input from the customer of our knowledge for they are the implementer and we are the advisor.  Then senior team members must drive it from the top down as the floor drives it from the bottom up meeting in the middle at the campfire where true learning takes place.  We have a responsibility to our students, the practice of Lean and to ourselves ensuring that when we roll things out people understand what is going on.  Communication is vital, visual management is vital, we as the leader must oversee and continually teach as the organization transforms piece by piece, area by area, and individual by individual.  Failing or disregarding warning signs when individuals don't understand something or are  confused is not practicing the art safely.

Safe practice requires due diligence and a thirst for what is right.  Sure we will make mistakes, yet we learn from them and remember/log the results so that others don't have to eat our dust.  We pull them forward as they pull us forward.

In closing I'd like to say thank you to those that help me and my new teams who truly are engaged at my new organization.  You are teaching me as much as I am teaching you and together we are moving that herd of cattle closer to our goal.  It's a journey folks and whether we are walking or horse or riding, we must always be aware of what we are doing for if we don't.  We could fall into the trap of leaving people behind, derailing the teams, causing undue burden on people, etc. all due to the fact we as leaders were not listening and practicing safe teaching habits.  Thank you for stopping by and reading my post this week and may you all have a Merry Christmas.  Home here in Arizona I'll be waiting for Santa to show up so he and I can discuss single piece flow at the North Pole.
--Cowboy

Riding the range

Howdy folks, it has been awhile hasn't it?  As we are Lean people we all know about change and the PDCA cycle.  Well, this cowboy collected data and looked at the grand inspired vision and had to adjust.  What does that look like you may ask?  Grab a cup of coffee, hitch up your horse and sit for a spell and I'll tell you about it in this posting.

Let's face it, there are some organizations that get it and some that do not.  Then we have the hybrid organizations where they state "we are starting on a Lean journey", toss tools at people, bring in a consultant or two, move some dirt around on the floor, put up a white board, establish some half baked metrics, hire the wrong people and bingo.... They are now a Lean company.  We have all seen it and we have all read about it and some of us may have even been subject to it.  The question is this, "What did you as an individual do?"  Did you stay the course?  Did you help teach and inspire?  Were  you inspired?  Did you upwardly lead or were you dictated to?  What was the outcome of the journey?

Yes the questions arise don't they.  You as the lone ranger in a town full of outlaws who only has a handful of allies trying to lead an organization on their Lean journey only to find out the organization decides to abandon the efforts because.... It is too much work. All your efforts and the individuals you have pulled forward coupled with the true advancements you have made are perceived as failure by you due to a shift in leadership, it happens.  

What we as Lean individuals have to remember is this, resilience.  Though the organization may have shifted and decisions are out of your direct control you have options and possibilities as Yoda tells me.  Seeking a new organization to practice in is a an option and possibility, teaching those in different areas of the organization, breaking more silos within the same organization or changing organizations entirely to one that is a better fit.

Riding for a brand that understands the People, Process, Culture piece is a wonderful thing to have as a base from which one can practice Lean.  We ride up on our horse and loping cowboy strolls in smiling and is greeted by smiles and willing minds that ask questions.  We as teachers and practitioners have an obligation to teach.  Yet on the same coin, as teachers we are also students.  The learning collective as their isn't always a true absolute in manufacturing, as I've found out the hard way on my journey.

What I'm learning on this lifelong trail is this.  There are organizations out there that welcome Lean inside their walls and truly embrace the lifestyle that it is.  They care about their workforce and it shows.  They have true employee engagement, and the employees are proud to ride for that brand.  There are organizations that say they want it, yet do not want to slow down to speed up.  They are "too busy" to improve and stifle the voices of those who question the respect for people piece of the equation.  Then there are those who pick and choose tools, roll those tools and give them to the untrained workforce while management is befuddled as to why it doesn't work.  Yet management  won't goto Gemba and truly ask "Why?".

The Range on which we ride is a huge with a vast expanse of landscapes we will encounter.  Hardship and victory along with defeat and frustration.  Yet, what separates the seasoned cowboy from the city slicker dude who is all hat and no cattle is this.  We stay the course...rain, snow sleet, hail.  We continue to learn and PDCA our skills to help bring others forward.

In closing I'd like to thank everyone for dropping by the campfire.  I know it has been quite some time since I've picked up the scribe and transposed thoughts and action to paper, yet there are times when we must slow down to speed up.  The Lean Cowboy was not gone, I was in the adjustment phase moving the standard wedge on the improvement wheel.

Benchmarking

Howdy folks, it has been awhile since I've pounded out a blog posting.  I have been doing a lot of travel, a lot of work,  this cowboy even found time to take a few days off.  So grab a cup of coffee from the fire and pull up a log as I talk about benchmarking tourism in this latest blog post.
   
Having traveled extensively the past 2 months touring hither and yon, I have been exposed to a myriad of orgs. in various stages of their Lean journey.  What good you may ask does it do for one to travel and look.  Well cowpokes, for one it gives yourself a comparison.  Yeah, yeah we can read all the books we want, look at youtube videos from various individuals, go to seminars, etc... Yet if we can't compare ourselves to something it is at times hard to see where one is in their journey.

Look at it like this buckaroos, Lean people love to teach and talk.  I've discovered this in my various travels and conversations with individuals at the top of the mountain, all the way down to the bottom of the valley.  Once you are bitten by the Lean bug and start to make improvements, we love to teach others.  It is this sense of community which binds us all together out here on the range.

I visited a midwest org who has started their journey now for the 6th time.  This was told to me by the owner of the org and his senior team.  I asked the question we all ask, "What are you doing to sustain and build your culture?"  Yes, that is a question from Yoda and I'll give her all the credit.  The individual told me, "We are engaging our people...."  I was privileged enough to go on the floor to their morning meeting.  I stretched with them, participated in their discussion of the deadly wastes, and observed how engaged the employees were.  These individuals understood that a Lean culture truly is a learning culture.  People were given time to recognize acts of those who went above and beyond the prior week, coupled with individuals given time to demo an improvement via projected on a white screen on the shop floor.  Even their team area was marked accordingly and was re-purposed after the meeting to return to manufacturing space.  Spending the day with this cadre of individuals on the floor had me smiling from ear to ear.  Why?  That org. understood the People, Process, Culture components which are needed to move forward and sustain a Lean environment.

I also visited an org that was just starting their journey.  Management was still working on the "buy in" and "selling" phases of bringing Lean into their org.  The conversation with the operations manager was interesting.  He spoke of belt certifications, and all sorts of stuff.  I for one don't feel a belt gives one credibility anymore than a drivers license tells me that you are Nascar material.  It just states you went thru a module of training.  It doesn't mean you can interpret it, implement it, teach it, mentor individuals, coach individuals *yes there is a difference*, nor have a true grasp of what you have learned any more than having a drivers license and going thru a 2 day driving course gives you the skill set to operate at a level in which you could win a race at Daytona.  It just states you were there and can regurgitate.  That isn't critical thinking, and that is what one wants to develop in their people, critical thinkers who solve problems.  When we focus on the bells and whistles, belts, precious metal "rankings" etc.... it is easy to lose focus of what we are doing.  I'm not saying it is all bad, I am stating that rank doesn't prove real world competence.  We call that, "All hat and no cattle".

There were other orgs that I visited in various stages of their journey.  With various thoughts about what Lean was, how to implement it, what to do about those who hate it, the history of it, all sorts of good conversation.  One thing I picked up from the early adopters who get it and understand the value of developing their people, they do not let their mind become that steel bear trap that has rusted shut.  They are always open and willing to discuss ideas.  There isn't any secret spell or silver bullet here, it boils back down to People, Process and Culture.

I'd like to thank everyone for dropping by my campfire.  It wasn't out, I was out on the range benchmarking what we have done and talking to other Lean practitioners and implementers vs. speaking with the academics and theorists.  I love the academics and theorists for they are the visionaries, but when we saddle up and go to town it is the practitioner who takes the vision and makes it happen.  Happy trails and I'll see you soon.

--Cowboy

When it all breaks down

Howdy folks, here I am once again on another aircraft flying to work teaching and implementing Lean on the front lines.  Tonight's posting will be about something we know all too well.  When multiple pieces of equipment break down, and what do we do to prevent this from happening.

Preventative Maintenance, PM as we will now call it, in some organizations is absent.  The PM records, how many hits a punch and die can take before dressing the tool is needed, changing the oil in presses and press brakes, forklift PM, tooling PM on press breaks, basic service to the Lasers, overall PM not only of the equipment but the processes also.

Yeah buddy, that was painted with a broad brush stroke.  We have covered a lot of ground with that paragraph.  Yet, what are we doing as Lean leaders and implementers to help bring PM into the game.  This week my teams took some major hits with equipment that should have been PM'd.  The teams and I understood what was happening and why, and we had to devise a plan to sell PM to the suits.  Sometimes those who sit in an office all day don't see the value of spending money on equipment that isn't broken, yet will spend tens of thousands of dollars in expedited shipping costs that actually are more expensive than the parts needed.

What we did was use this as a baseline, a baseline of what you may ask.  Well cowpokes, when something breaks that sends a piece of equipment to boothill, we want to know the date/time and tech who replaced it.  With this we can start collecting data on service life of parts.  This will also allow your maintenance department to understand which parts to keep on hand and a qty. because the team is harvesting the data to pass off to the accounting folks, who then can become allies when you justify keeping spare parts on hand because..... when you are failing to produce customer orders on time deliver starts to look a lot like habitual overtime.  We all know from a previous blog entry that habitual overtime leads to burnout and lowered productivity.

Doing a regimented PM program isn't easy, I know as I've been trying to sell it to those who write the checks and get our PO #'s.  This is where the salesmanship coupled with data is paying off.  When your team starts to engage individuals on the senior team about not giving them what they need to produce a quality product in a timely fashion, they are holding the senior team accountable.  This is when silos are broken, and a true dialog is started.  Front line guys describing the problem, engineering harvesting data and scoping the true root cause, senior team writing the checks to make sure the mission is carried out, and me well I'm orchestrating it all teaching and living Lean principles along the way.  Yes this cowboy made is sound very simplistic and I've left out some steps, but you get the gist of what I'm saying.

I'd like to thank everyone who stops by to read my blog and watch what I'm doing with this organization.  It is a learning experience every day, both for me and my teams.  Yoda and I have been doing some rearranging in my office with a paint scheme and that in and of itself is an exercise in Lean as we don't want rework, we are doing the legwork and constructing the vision before we buy any of the paint.  It is going to be a grand project and I may post some pics of it along the way.  Remember folks always listen to the people doing the work as they are a highly underutilized resource that can help solve many issues.

Thank you once again for stopping around the campfire

Cowboy

Long Hours

Howdy folks and here I am once again writing to you from an aircraft on my way to work.  Yes, it has been a few weeks and in these weeks this cowboy has been doing the 60 plus hour weeks with his team to implement Lean and learn about process improvement from the front lines.

This posting is going to be about something all of us can experience.  Burnout.  When we continually work our team sixty plus hours a week, be it voluntarily or not time in is time in.  What do we as Lean leaders do to help alleviate the stress and burnout that comes with burning the candle at both ends?  Well that is what I'm going to discuss here today.  So grab a cup of coffee and have a seat at the fire and we will dive right into this stampede of a topic.

One of the biggest things I do is listen to my team.  Yes, listening to your team is sometimes all that is needed to defuse an issue or lend a shoulder.  You may even find that you have something in common with this team member and can use these times to build bridges with that individual.  Another one of the techniques I use is to buy my team lunch when they have gone above and beyond.  Yes I've touched on this before, yet it is imperative that your team understand you appreciate them.  Lean is more than just improvement, it is building capability in people.  That in an of itself is improvement.  When people are dedicating six days a week to an organization ten plus hours a day that needs to be recognized by you as the leader.  When I talk about leader, that could be CEO/CFO all the way down to front line supervisor.  Leading your team in every moment requires you to recognize and acknowledge people.

The more I've recognized efforts and advancements with my team, the more I've seen us grow.  Grow in our problem diagnosis skills as well as implementation skills.  How does this happen you may ask?  It all stems from the People, Process, Culture trifecta my wife talks about each and every day.  Though times may be busy, product needs to be manufactured, and overtime is to be worked.  Recognizing the concerted efforts of your team and being fair and equatable with them is something we as leaders need to be cognizant of all the time.  Think of it as listening to the machine.  When the machine is making odd noises, we get maintenance to look at it do we not?  The same thing when our workforce is in need of help, we need to listen to them as they are on the frontline.  When they need help we are morally obligated as Lean leaders to listen and implement the required help our team needs.  For if we fail to listen, then we are destined to break the machine.  When we break those bonds with our team rebuilding those structures can be very difficult if not impossible.

We must remember that though the hours may be long, the trail may be filled with hard work, the weather may not always be pleasant, we as the leaders MUST make a concerted effort to go above and beyond to help the team.  Note I did not say coddle, I said help.  Big difference their cowpokes.  When the mutual respect of your team works hard and you work with them to blaze that trail, your organization will experience progress.  When you run your cowboys and cowgirls into the ground without recognizing their efforts and helping pull them forward, well.... you are a poor trail boss and it is time to course correct.

Well folks, I'd like to thank you for stopping by reading my latest post.  The Respect for People concept isn't just words it is reality and when truly practiced great things can become reality.

Happy Trails

Cowboy

Superstars

Howdy folk, yes I know it has been a few weeks since I've taken up the scribe and written anything.  Knowing this I will state that it was not for the lack of desire, this old cowboy has been working off shifts, my shift coupled with travel.  So one can see that maybe I'm overburdening "my system".  Fear not as I believe things should return to some state of homeostasis in the next day or two.

Tonight's posting from the aircraft I'm sitting on is going to be about relying too heavily on one individual and what happens when they quit.  Yes we all have our superstars, those buckaroos who can ride any horse,  rope any calf, mend any fence, and never seem to tire.  Though we don't take them for granted, we need to realize that when we don't build bench strength  and rely only on that individual we can cause a crisis when they leave the ranch.

This happened to my team.  We had one of our leads leave for greener pastures.  Boy was this guy good, there wasn't a problem he couldn't solve, nor a challenge he couldn't face.  Full of ideas and improvements, he even had vision to see the potential problems before they became problems.  Yup, a real early adopter of Lean thinking and devoured information pertaining to it.  So we became too dependent on this individual, and lost sight of growth in the bench strength of our team.

When this individual left did it hurt?  Yes it hurt, and it always will.  Here is the good thing about this situation.  We were astute enough to realize that we as an org. needed to seek out and develop our people to this level of excellence.  Though we didn't get to this level of excellence before he left, we did start training to help bring individuals up to this level of performance.  You'd be surprised at your people when you give them the chance to learn and better themselves.  Yoda always tells me that it is about people, process and culture.  I'll admit she is right.  When we rolled out the opportunity for individuals to learn a new skill set, there were people willing to mount up in the saddle and ride.

We should always be looking at training individuals and bringing their skill sets up to a higher level of operational excellence.  Couple that with continuing their education and mentoring them on how to use Lean tools vs just pencil whipping up charts for the suits is also invaluable.

In closing I could say the take away you cowpokes should get from me is that when you have a superstar, look for individuals he/she can mentor and develop.  This not only gives the team a stronger presence, it also affords your superstar a chance to teach.  We all know that when we teach a discipline we understand it even more than if we are mere practitioners of the discipline.  Yeah, you could say that is a gig at the pure academics out there, but remember.  Without the pure academic theorists out there we wouldn't have the tool to take to the ranch and work with.

I'd like to thank you for stopping by for this installment and as always, Happy Trails

Breakdowns

Howdy folks and welcome back to another posting.  So grab some coffee and prop yourself up around the campfire while I discuss this weeks topic and what my team and I have learned on our Lean journey.

Anyone in manufacturing can tell you about breakdowns.  From the simplest screw not being in stock to get the half million dollar machine up and running, to sending your control head back to the OEM for a one month rebuild at the cost of tens of thousands of dollars.

Well my team and I have been suffering a rash of breakdowns.  What did we do? That is the question I'm sure everyone wants to know, right.  It is a multi part answer yet as the old saying goes, "Wait there's more."  Anytime I have a machine online my first instinct is what piece of equipment do I have to cover the load in case of a total breakdown or those pesky gremlins decide to show up and read havoc  on our operation.  We had that part covered.  Yes there is added labor in manufacturing parts outside of a dedicated area per se, but protecting the customer is worth it.

Now we can ask, "Cowboy don't you have a PM program and 1 terabyte worth of data to predict any and all breakdowns you may encounter?  Don't you have a PM cycle and know what are high wear parts?  Why don't you keep high wear parts on hand so in the event of a breakdown, there is an immediate swap out to minimize downtime and increase uptime?  Why haven't you involved your maintenance department in your findings?  What are you doing with your maintenance department to help them understand what a Lean journey is?  Why aren't you involving everyone?

Yes these are all valid questions that I know some of you have postulated in your mind as you read this.  Here is the kicker, a Lean journey is a marathon not a sprint.  When you move an organization forward it doesn't happen all at once.   Sure you may hire new people with ideas who proclaim on their LinkedIn page they know "true lean".  Heck you may even hire people that have a "belt certification".  All this doesn't matter if you don't involve people who do the work.

I still haven't answered the question now have I?  Here is the answer short and sweet.  The parts were ordered, and we were back up and running in an amount of time that would make the Pony Express cringe.  Did we loose anything?  Sure we did, yet here is the best part.  We as an organization learned.  My team learned.  We learned that we don't have alignment in all facets of our operation.  When problems arise there isn't a direct line of communication to get the help one needs to alleviate or better yet prevent problems before they occur.

Well folks thanks again for stopping by my campfire and remember this, if all your wagons in the wagon train don't know where you are going or where the spare parts are then chaos may ensue when you have a breakdown.  I could go on about uniformity and standardization of your wagons to help reduce inventory of parts, but I'll save that for another post.

Thank you for dropping by,

Cowboy